The Most Popular Hat In The Bar.

Last Saturday Night, my improv troupe, International Stinger performed our 40 minute long Dickensian Christmas show. You can see clips of the show here. To enhance the Dickensian nature of the show, we all brought costume pieces that we could wear to enhance our Dickensian appearance.

Which gave me an excuse to reach up over my closet and bring down my Bell Topper.


Here we see Mr.B wearing his full Dickensian costume. (The snow came later on the walk to the bar from the theater.)

I got the hat in college, lo, 12 years ago. For a few years, to earn extra cash in college, I did balloon deliveries for a local magician in Bowling Green, KY. If you paid the magician enough and scheduled it in advance, I might show up at your kids party dressed as Blarney (the big, purple non-trade-marked dinosaur), The Fat White or Red Power Ranger, The Horny Happy Birthday Gorilla (that one was for adults) or Fat Batman. The cash was pretty good for the gigs. $40 and they would pick you up and drop you off. Not bad, all things considered.

I always made a ton of cash on Valentines Day. Between the multiple balloon and flower deliveries that I drove for and the frequent request for the Horny Happy Valentines Day Gorilla, I would earn several hundred bucks over a weekend. Sometimes I would let Nick, the chief magician buy down the cash he owed me by ordering rare or interesting costume pieces for me from his many, many catalogs. I got a really groovy pair of Bram Stoker's Dracula style finger extensions. Some cool blue sunglasses and even a Star Trek; The Next Generation captains uniform.

One day I ordered and eventually received the Bell Topper.

I primarily used it for Halloween gigs. It's the perfect hat for a morticians costume or even the Grim Reaper. I wore it for an entire October in 1998, while I designed, ran and operated a local radio stations Haunted House. The Bell Topper has seen a lot of happy use.

But this Christmas, last Saturday night was the first time that I ever got to take it out and wear it around town. Particularly around my friends. And they loved it!

It was the most popular hat in the bar. People wanted to talk to me, because I was friends with the Bell Topper.

And more to the point, people asked to wear it. Lots of people. Loads of people. And because I had my camera handy, I got pics of most of them. Check them out...


Naughty Natanya (pre-show) tries on The Bell Topper.


Ms. Pixy looks "simply smashing" in The Bell Topper.


Look! It's Sam The Bartender! And he's wearing The Bell Topper!


Ryan looks like one Delirious Fish in The Bell Topper.


Later, at The Green Mill, The Bell Topper got a lot of wear too!


I think that Ms.Titi Touche pulled off The Bell Topper look just fine!


For a short time, we lost Kitten Kaboodle in The Bell Topper.


We even had to send Violet Vixen in to go find her in The Bell Topper.

In the end of the night, we learned that not everyone can wear a Bell Topper and get away with it. For some, the hat was too big and their wee heads were too small and they just disappeared altogether. For others, The Bell Topper betrayed them and they ended up looking like a big fat dude, wearing a big fat hat, smoking a big, fat pipe.


This is the picture that I want on the label of my own whiskey brand, someday.

Cheers,
Mr.B